WE are told day after day how important it is to innovate and create high added value businesses. Talk about innovation is cheap whereas doing it certainly is not.

Taking new ideas into the market is not just expensive but is fraught with uncertainty and risk. And while there is no shortage of innovative ideas, the difficulties in taking them forward hinder their development to commercial fruition.

A solution to this dilemma is the business laboratory. These are places where people and companies can develop ideas and test their validity.

They provide facilities and services that allow successful ideas to be converted into businesses and to grow to a stable state.

A business laboratory is shortly to be built at Central Park, the high technology estate designed to economically revive East Manchester. The laboratory, One Central Park Ltd, is owned by MANCAT, the four Greater Manchester universities and Manchester Science Park.

It will process new ideas through a series of stages starting with research and development, moving to incubation and onwards to supported development and growth. Paralleling this developmental activity will be comprehensive training programmes.

It's a bold step for all the participants but one that will make a real difference particularly to the people of East Manchester whose turn has finally come.